Avengers of the Week | Audrey Nell Edwards Hamilton and JoeAnn Anderson Ulmer

When Audrey Nell Edwards Hamilton and JoeAnn Anderson Ulmer were 15-year-old Black girls who liked to spend time with their church youth group in St. Augustine, Florida in July 1963, they never dreamed they would become known as part of the “St. Augustine Four” in the history of the civil rights movement.

When the youth group was together, talk would inevitably turn to news reports of adult efforts to call out the racist treatment of Black people, and their advisor, Dr. Robert Hayling, encouraged their discussion. Audrey shared that her mother would shop at the local Woolworth’s for her school supplies, but she couldn’t sit at the counter to get something to eat if she was hungry. JoeAnn said she couldn’t get a drink from the water fountain marked “whites only” if she walked home through the park.

The group eventually decided they would make signs to protest the unequal treatment of Black people and picket on the main street outside the shops. After picketing a few times, the teens decided they needed to do more. Many of their elders told them they shouldn’t go any further, but they were undeterred. They put away their protest signs and 16 of them marched together to wage sit-ins at local stores. Audrey and JoeAnn, along with two teen boys, Samuel White and Willie Carl Singleton, sat at the Woolworth’s lunch counter, each ordering a hamburger and a coke, intending to pay with money given to them along the way by the local barber. The staff repeatedly warned them: “We don’t serve n-----s here! You have to leave, or you will be arrested.”

When they didn’t budge, the police came and arrested all of them, releasing those over 18 on bond. The judge told the parents that their children would only be released if they signed a pledge that their children would not demonstrate anymore. Audrey, JoeAnn and the two boys, Samuel White and Willie Carl Singleton, successfully pleaded with their parents not to make that promise. Their friends were all released, but the four were separated from their families and lost their freedom for the next six months.

There were no juvenile facilities at the time, so first they were first housed with adult prisoners for 72 days. They were later transferred to distant reform schools where the girls were initially placed together in isolation for 52 days and made to perform manual labor. The judge said it was out of his hands because they were technically no longer in the legal system. Audrey said her mother would cry when she visited her because her daughter’s knees were bleeding from kneeling while scrubbing floors. Outrage over the treatment of the teenagers steadily grew, minting them the “St. Augustine Four”. They attracted the support of baseball great Jackie Robinson, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called them “warriors”. Finally, in an action by the governor and the state legislature in January 1964, they were released without conditions.

White and Singleton have since passed away, but Audrey and JoeAnn remain involved in the civil rights movement, speaking about their experiences and also recording their story for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the ACCORD History Trail. “Now we’re little old ladies, but we still have a driving passion for doing what is right,” said JoeAnn.

We salute our Avengers Audrey Nell Hamilton and JoeAnn Anderson Ulmer for having been those brave girls who did what was right and for continuing to contribute to the ongoing fight for racial equality.

Go, Audrey Nell Edwards Hamilton and JoeAnn Anderson Ulmer!

The @GenderAvenger #AvengerOfTheWeek is Audrey Nell Edwards Hamilton and JoeAnn Anderson Ulmer, who waged a 1963 sit-in at a whites-only lunch counter. “Now we’re little old ladies, but we still have a… passion for doing what is right.” #GenderAvenger https://www.genderavenger.com/blog/avengers-of-the-week-audrey-nell-edwards-hamilton-and-joeann-anderson-ulmer